Tamron SP 17mm f/3.5 (51B)
![Tamron SP 17mm f/3.5 lens](../../../../assets-content/outlandish-lenses/classic-lenses/tamron-adaptall-2-lenses/images/135/20181227-0052.jpg)
![Tamron SP 17mm f/3.5 lens mounted on a Pentax Super A](../../../../assets-content/outlandish-lenses/classic-lenses/tamron-adaptall-2-lenses/images/135/20181227-0140.jpg)
This lens was introduced 1979 as one of the first Adaptall 2 lenses. Today 17mm might not seem very exciting, but in 1979 it was quite an exotic focal length. Few third-party lens companies had a lens quite this wide in their line up. This lens does not have a filter thread, but it came with a lens hood that took 82mm (these hoods usually got lost and are now very hard to find!) and also has a selection of 3 built in filters. The adaptall-2.com website lists these as: 81B (a warm up filter for colour photography), 80B (a blue cool down filter, again for colour photography) and Y2 (a yellow filter for adding a little contrast in b&w photography). But my copy replaces the 80B filter with an R80 filter (a red filter for adding dramatic contrast in B&W photography). In other words there were two versions: one aimed more at colour photographers and a second aimed more at B&W photographers.
Photographs taken with the Tamron SP 17mm f/3.5
This lens has a repuation for being somewhat middle of the road when it comes to image quality, which for most people (including me!) is good enough. All these photographs were taken using a Pentax ME Super on Kocak Portra 160 film.
![Tamron SP 17mm f/3.5 (51B) gallery - Image 1](../../../../assets-content/outlandish-lenses/classic-lenses/tamron-adaptall-2-lenses/images/135/0092_01.jpg)
![Tamron SP 17mm f/3.5 (51B) gallery - Image 2](../../../../assets-content/outlandish-lenses/classic-lenses/tamron-adaptall-2-lenses/images/135/0092_04.jpg)
![Tamron SP 17mm f/3.5 (51B) gallery - Image 3](../../../../assets-content/outlandish-lenses/classic-lenses/tamron-adaptall-2-lenses/images/135/0092_05.jpg)
![Tamron SP 17mm f/3.5 (51B) gallery - Image 4](../../../../assets-content/outlandish-lenses/classic-lenses/tamron-adaptall-2-lenses/images/135/0092_32.jpg)
Just in case you're wondering, I've no idea who the shirless man is in the last of these photos! He just wondered into my shot and I thought he looked quite… err… statuesque (!) so I left him in.
Links
Tamron SP 17mm f/3.5 (51B) on the adaptall-2.com website